Some Exciting News and A Trunki Giveaway | James Villa Ambassadors

When I was still at school, I was determined that I would travel the world when I was old enough. I always resigned myself to the fact that although Scotland was my home, it was never meant to be the place I stayed for too long at a time. As I’ve gotten older, my thoughts haven’t changed, but life has gotten in the way a little. My orginal plans to abandon my life here for a life in Australia after university were short lived, and I settled down into the mundane reality that can be adulthood. The fourteen year old girl that wanted to see every corner of the world is still inside me, albeit slightly more stressed and with a lot more on her plate than just her homework. That girl is still planning to see the world, but now she’ll get to do it hand in hand with a toddler and a partner by her side.

Not brave enough to venture outwith the UK with a baby, last year our ‘bucket list’ for travelling grew tenfold. For every month we didn’t travel, we added three countries to the list of places to see in another month. We looked forward to the future, to when travel would be do-able, we booked one holiday, we planned ten more, and tried to work out how to do everything we wanted to do on a less than ideal budget. We didn’t manage, but we resigned ourselves to two big holidays’ this year, a handful of good old’ staycations (Cornwall I’m coming for you) and we felt content with what 2018 would bring. The Canary Islands, Rome and a shedload of British culture. Travel with a toddler can be intimidating, but it will also be more rewarding than it ever would have been before. We’ll have the chance to experience the joy of the new cultures with a child who will embrace everything and find the light in every place we visit.

As if the plans we’d already made for this year weren’t already more than we could have wanted, last week James Villas’ announced their Holiday Ambassadors for 2018. Spoiler alert, we were one of the chosen seven bloggers. Over the next year, we’ll be working with James Villas’ to give you an insight into villa holidays with the walking hurricane that is a toddler. I’ll be posting more about what we are getting up to with James Villas’ in the coming months, but I felt like this news warranted both an announcement post, and a thank you.

When I wrote and published my first post eighteen months ago, I would have never dreamed I would still be writing today – let alone that my blog would have given me the opportunities it has done. My pregnancy blog was a secret from the real world for pretty much the entirety of the pregnancy, and I only found the courage to tell my ‘real world’ when Harrison was born. When he was born I wasn’t ready to give up my pregnancy blog quite yet, and instead it has grown with Harrison ever since. On Life With Boys I’ve documented his birth, his first steps, the first caravan trip and everything in between, and I’ll continue to do so as we venture further. To the Canary Islands, to Rome, to Cornwall, to wherever 2018 may take us. What started as my secret place to vent has turned into a visual diary of our lives and Harrisons’ childhood, and I’ll always be thankful I stumbled across Blogger on that day eighteen months ago!

Here’s to travel, and here’s to being James Villas’ Holiday Ambassadors 2018.

As a token of thanks to everyone who has read, followed and supported us for the last eighteen months, I wanted to give one reader the chance to win the number one item on our packing list for our travels this year: a Trunki case. If you’ve managed to stay off their radar for the last few years, Trunkis‘ are special cases designed specifically with the intention of keeping little kiddos busy. They are conveniently hand luggage sized ride-on cases, that you can fill to the brim with everything needed to keep a tot amused. I have one brand new Zimba the Zebra Trunki up for grabs below, so be sure to chance your arm, it may well be your lucky day!

121 Comments

Oh my goodness that is amazing! Well done to you and I’m so glad all of your hard work is paying off. I completely agree that travelling with children is a wonderful experience and I look forward to reading about your adventures!

Congratulations on becoming an ambassador, living the dream! We took Parker on his first holiday abroad last year (to Tenerife) and it was amazing. We made absolutely amazing memories and it’s now what I work for! We’ve booked to go to Kos in July, so if I won the Trunki – that would be where we would be taking it! xx

My bucketlist is growing with each passing month too, I don’t have children but I own a retail business which might as well be my child haha. So hard to get away when you have big commitments. Fingers crossed for a few adventures this year.

Many congratulations! What a fantastic opportunity, you are going to have the best year! I’ve resigned myself to the fact I will have to wait for mini me to be older before I can catch up with the travelling I should have done before uni and settling down, but will try my best to make up for it in the meantime! Sim x

I would love to go to Hawaii, it seems like such a beautiful place, with an amazing culture, people, food, eco system and traditions, I would like to experience an action packed day there with everything the island has to offer, finishing off with a bonfire at the beach!

We’re more likely to go to Canvey Island than the Canary Islands as we’re very much staycationers – We are going off to the Lincolnshire wolds later in the year so the trunki would get its first outing then.